Six-thirty came really fast.  I felt tired and I was doubting the girls would be able to do a 12+ hour park day today.  Nole and I talked and decided Animal Kingdom would be a better choice for today.  It opens a bit earlier (which we would be “late” for) and closes at 6pm in winter.  It’s a smaller and less busy park too.  Then we could get back to the hotel at a decent time so we can do a long day at Magic Kingdom tomorrow. 

I made pancakes again and we had a smooth morning and got on the bus which had plenty of seats today.  We managed to get inside the gates during the half hour window that resort guests can enter before regular guests, but only moments before them. 

As we were walking in, they came running down the path.  Rather than race them to Flight of Passage (the ride we were heading to), we went to the Na’vi River Journey which is a gentle river ride through Pandora, the land of the Avatars.  It only had a 10 minute wait (it consistently had a 45+ minute wait the rest of the day).

Flight of Passage had a 55 minute wait when we got off the river journey so we walked toward the new Zootopia show.

The Zootopia show is in the Tree of Life, where It’s Tough to Be a Bug (Bug’s Life) used to be.  We enjoyed it! 

When we left there, Minnie and Mickey had no wait so we stopped to see them. 

I went on Expedition Everest, a rollercoaster which also had no wait.  The early entry can be good for getting on a ride that usually has a long wait but it can also be useful to ride a bunch of rides that normally have 20-40 my minute waits without any wait! 

We went to DINOSAUR next.  This ride is permanently closing February 1st to make way for a new area that will feature Indiana Jones and Encanto themed attractions.  The girls liked it so much they wanted to go again but it’s a very jerky ride and it hurt my back the first time.  They wouldn’t go alone though so I agreed to go again if I could sit in the middle (a slightly smoother ride).  Nole gladly sat the second round out.

We watched the Festival of the Lion King next and then to Kilimanjaro Safari.

The safari had about a 30 minute wait.  Nova was kind of against doing and of the “zoo stuff” but I think even she enjoyed this.  Esme loved seeing the giraffes. 

Earlier today, I asked AI when the shortest waits would be for Flight of Passage today and it suggested between 1 and 2pm. When we finished the safari, it was 1pm so we went back to the Pandora area.  The wait was down to 30 minutes! 

All four of us rode this ride which involves a very realistic simulation of flying on a banshee (a dragon-like creature).  Esme is prone to motion sickness so we read some tips since this ride can cause that.  Esme knew to focus on the horizon, avoid looking to the sides and close her eyes as needed.  We all made it through no worse for the wear but Nole and the girls were not interested in riding a second time.  Besides, it was about 2 now and the line was back up to 55 minutes.

We got lunch.  The girls got kids pizzas which were comically small (only about 5″ across) but they ate them. This was my lunch.

We went to the Feathered Friends in Flight show after lunch.

And then to the live action Nemo show which was my favorite part of today, especially because of our great seats! 

We made one more quick stop to see the Komodo dragon, which was on Nole’s wishlist for the day.

Thanks to lots of luck with wait times, we had enough time to do more – it was only about 4–but we decided to go back to the hotel to swim.  We got back and I made grilled cheese and pudgie pies for dinner.  By the time we finished making them it was dark out but we went to the pool anyway.  With the sun down it was too cold to swim so we will try that again on Saturday (no parks that day!). 

We finished watching Avatar 2 and then I declared lights out at 7:45pm.